[lug] Password problem (post RH7.2 upgrade)

[Anders Knudsen]

My problems is not that I can't log in...I infact CAN log into the machine 
as root, or any other user.
The problem is that only the first 8 characters of any password used are 
accepted.

example.
If user root password is abcdefghijklmnop

then if you log in as root, and enter the password as it was created, you 
get denied.
if you log in as root and enter abcdefgh, it accepts the password and 
you're logged in.

So my question again, if anyone reading this knows, why does it "clip" the 
passwords now?

thanks,
-Anders.

 >It sounds like you had MD5 passwords before, and either turned off MD5
 >passwords, or are missing PAM modules needed for MD5. Probably you
 >should boot up with a rescue mode floppy or CD, and do a chroot to the
 >mount point of the mounted hard drive with root partition. Then you can
 >run passwd. A sample of a good rescue floppy:
 >http://www.toms.net/rb/home.html

 >D. Stimits, stimits at idcomm.com

 >Anders Knudsen wrote:
 >>
 >> Just upgraded my RH7.0 system to 7.2.
 >>
 >> After the upgrade, my root password did not work! :O
 >> Some time digging caused me to find out that now, all passwords on the
 >> system are truncated to 8 characters!
 >> If I typed the full password, which is longer than 8 chars, no joy.
 >> Type in the first 8 chars of the password, we have login!
 >> If I try changing passwd, to something longer than 8, then still can only
 >> use first 8 chars to login.
 >> So...my question...
 >> How/Why did this happen?
 >> What can I do to mitigate?
 >> I was unable to find any documentation, be that FAQ or manpage, that
 >> explained how to limit the maximum length of a password (unlike minimum,
 >> which is easy to adjust.)
 >>
 >> Any and all advice greatly appreciated.